Bangladesh: Violent clashes over Islamist leader’s sentencing
A Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) police officer shoots rubber bullets to demonstrators during a clash with Jamaat-e-Islami activists in Rajshahi on February 28, 2013. At least 34 people were killed in Bangladesh in a wave of violence today as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence conflict.
Fresh clashes in Bangladesh have killed at least 23 people as the country observes a nationwide strike over a war crimes court's ruling to sentence an Islamist party leader to death.
Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a cleric and leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, was found guilty on Thursday of crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
He was the third defendant to be convicted by the tribunal. Since his sentencing, violent clashes have broken out, leaving at least 58 people dead.